intentervsinventeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“intenter” and “invente” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#36,005
“intenter” frequency rank
#9,680
“invente” frequency rank
45685
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intenter invente
Definition Diriger contre quelqu’un un procès, une accusation. Il n’est usité que dans ces phrases, Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de inventer.

Where the eye mixes intenter and invente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
intenter
7 ch
invente

Why the eye confuses intenter with invente

A purely visual mix-up. intenter (\ɛ̃.tɑ̃.te\) and invente (\ɛ̃.vɑ̃t\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45685, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intenter is recorded at frequency rank #36,005, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃.te\. invente is at rank #9,680, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.vɑ̃t\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 45685, this pair ranks #200,831 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of intenter vs invente

Shared letters: eint. Private to "intenter": r. Private to "invente": v.

"intenter" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC  ·  "invente" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intenterinetnter · inntenter · intenetr · intennter · intenterr · intentre · intentter · intetner
  • inventeinevnte · innvente · invenet · invennte · inventte · invetne · invnete · invvente

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "intenter" and "invente" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.tɑ̃.te\ versus \ɛ̃.vɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "intenter" or "invente" show up more?
"invente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,680 in our French list, against #36,005 for "intenter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "intenter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "invente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,831 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intenter" and "invente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intenter vs inventes". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #200,831 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list